Pinocchio Unstrung's Viral Ending Changes Everything: The Disturbing Final Scene, Explained
Directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield, Pinocchio: Unstrung is the latest chapter in the Twisted Childhood cinematic universe, aka the Poohniverse.
Having already ruined other beloved characters from our childhoods such as Winnie-the-Pooh, Peter Pan, and Bambi, Pinocchio is next on the chopping block. Starring Richard Brake as Geppetto and Robert Englund as the voice of Cricket, Pinocchio: Unstrung is the most star-powered entry so far, and with their inclusion, comes a step up in terms of quality.
The story sees a concerned Geppetto create a puppet for his grandson James. Having lost his parents and his best friend Zack within a short space of time, Geppetto hopes that the puppet will help him deal with his grief. After meeting for the first time, James and the puppet, Pinocchio, become fast friends, with James perfectly fine with the fact that his new wooden friend is sentient and can move around on his own. As the two bond, Pinocchio becomes increasingly fixated on keeping James safe. Having been told by Cricket that the best way to do that is to harm those that have hurt James, Pinocchio begins killing in his friend's honour. The bloodlust triggers a desire to become human, and so Pinocchio sets about harvesting parts of his victims to achieve his dream.
Pinocchio: Unstrung is very much not the version that you grew up watching, and in typical Poohniverse fashion, has got the entire internet talking. Although much of the commentary is about how Pinocchio would be best pals with Chucky and M3gan, there’s no denying that the final act switcheroo completely deviates from expectations, and in doing so becomes pretty disturbing. We take a look at the final moments of Pinocchio: Unstrung to unpick what it all means and why you’ll never see the Disney version the same way again. Spoilers follow!
What Happens in The Final Act?
Having spent much of Pinocchio: Unstrung watching Pinocchio hack his way through anyone that has so much as looked at James wrong, during the final act, a new villain is revealed. As James, Mia, and Dudley begin looking into Pinocchio’s origins they discover that he was the result of James’ grandfather Geppetto’s experiments with a magical tree. Through video diaries, they watch in horror as Geppetto chronicles all his failed wooden creations, viciously killing or entrapping them when they don’t behave as he would like.
Throughout the countless retellings of Pinocchio, Geppetto has always been a kindly old man, desperate for a child of his own. Geppetto is far from that here, and is instead a maniacal scientist who believes his intentions of creating a friend for his grandson are good. Pinocchio: Unstrung flipping Geppetto into the bad guy is a great move. Many were expecting it to simply be Pinocchio living out his M3GAN and Chucky fantasies, but adding in the secondary villain makes for a great surprise. Although surprise might be a slight stretch for anyone familiar with the work of Geppetto actor Richard Brake, an actor renowned for playing very bad men.
At the same time as the trio are engrossed in the video footage, Geppetto has tracked down Pinocchio who has been happily killing James’ school bullies. After bringing the puppet back home, Geppetto explains to Pinocchio that he was grown on the tree using the corpse of James’ dead friend, Zack. The idea being that the soul transfers from the body to the root, into the tree, enabling for a rebirth of sorts. While he admits it seems to have worked, Geppetto can’t have Pinocchio’s trail of bodies linked to him, and so he must die.
James and Zack’s sister, Mia, step in to help, and after Geppetto savagely kills Dudley, the pair rally to kill James' grandfather. Just when hope looks lost for James and Mia, Pinocchio appears, armed with a shotgun. Geppetto screams that Pinocchio cannot kill him as not only is he his ‘father’, but as his creator, he is also Pinocchio’s God, at which point Pinocchio channels his inner action hero and wryly says “Goodbye God,” before shooting Geppetto. At this point the living experiments break free of their enclosure, impaling Geppetto, before starting a fire that will see everyone burn. Luckily James, Mia and Pinocchio manage to get out before it's too late.
Will Pinocchio Kill Again?
As the three watch James’ house burn to the ground, they share a strange heart to heart. Although Geppetto might have technically been more diabolical than Pinocchio, the puppet did still brutally kill a lot of people. However, rather than be traumatised by his actions, both James and Mia seem content to let his murder spree slide. Pinocchio asks, “Am I bad?” to which Mia replies, “You were just confused”. Pinocchio then responds with, “I’m such a rascal aren’t I?” which causes both Mia and James to laugh heartily. James goes further still by remarking that everyone Pinocchio killed deserved it, except, perhaps, the dentist. After James laments he’ll have to find a new dentist, Pinocchio jokes he’ll kill them too, but is he really joking?
As James and Mia begin to walk away from the house, having promised to keep Pinocchio’s secrets, the puppet says to himself, “I didn’t enjoy having to kill those people”, but he is lying. No sooner have the words left his mouth, his nose begins to grow. Anyone familiar with the story of Pinocchio knows that his nose grows whenever he tells a lie. So it seems he did enjoy killing all of those people after all, and with more Twisted Childhood stories to come, including the big Poohniverse: Monster Assemble, it is probably safe to say that Pinocchio will fall back on his murderous instinct. The only question that remains is whether he’ll be killing on the side of good or evil.
Geppetto and Cricket Will Return
Although Cricket is seen getting whacked with a hammer by Pinocchio, during the mid-credits sting he is revealed to have survived. Having failed to fully manipulate Pinocchio to the dark side, Cricket is now determined to take down the puppet, but he’s going to need help. With the fire now under control, Cricket approaches the prone body of Geppetto, which is helpfully sitting against the magic tree. Upon making the discovery, Cricket declares, “I might be small, but I have big plans for this one.” He then frantically begins work connecting Geppetto to the tree, muttering, “From roots come resurrection.”
It is clear that Geppetto is now to be the subject of his own works, with Cricket his puppet master. Geppetto was evil enough in human form, but in wood he will be even more formidable. Plus, if he succumbs to the same drive to become human again that all his experiments did — Pinocchio included — then Monsters Assemble is going to have an exceptionally high body count from this duo alone.
Quite how everyone will fit together for the big crossover is yet to be revealed, but, during a Q&A at Raindance Film Festival, director Rhys Frake-Waterfield mentioned that there is a line that points to a person who has been orchestrating everything. During Pinocchio: Unstrung’s final act, Geppetto says that he was taught about the tree by a doctor, could they be the one that has been pulling everyone’s strings?
